One of the people I work with was at eBay from 2000 to 2009 and they did what you talk about - have one giant database server. Some Sun monstrosity. Then they

One of the people I work with was at eBay from 2000 to 2009 and they did what you talk about - have one giant database server. Some Sun monstrosity. Then they ran out of horsepower on that one server. Let me tell you, the stories are pretty horrible.